William Shakespeare

Who was William Shakespeare? Why was he such an important American poet and play writer? His amazing poems and plays have made him one of the most famous figures in American literary history. William Shakespeare is such an amazing play write because of his ability to write sonnets, poems, and plays that refer to everyone. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon.

The son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, He had six siblings, two older sisters, Joan and Judith and four brothers, Gilbert, Edmund, Richard, and the fourth brother name was not given. Of William’s six siblings, only Judith and four of his brothers survived to adulthood. In one article it says William attended the King’s New School in Stratford, which taught reading, writing, and the classics. However, in another article it says he was educated at the King Edward IV Grammar School in Stratford, where he learned Latin and a little Greek, and read

the Roman dramatists. (“William Shakespeare”1 , “William Shakespeare Biography”2). Shakespeare did not have much formal education. He may have taught at a school at period in time ,but it seems more accurate that shortly after 1585 he went to London to begin his apprenticeship as an actor. Due to the plague, the London theaters were often closed between June 1592 and April 1594.

During this period in time Shakespeare most likely had some income from his patron, Henry Wriothesley , earl of Southampton , to whom he dedicated his first two poems, “Venus and Adonis” in 1593 and “The Rape of Lucrece” in 1594. (“William Shakespeare”1) William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Hathaway grow up in Shottery, a small village a mile west of Stratford. William was 18 and Anne was 26 and she was also pregnant .